BOLLYWOOD FACTS

Amitabh Bachchan is the most famous Bollywood star in history. In a poll conducted in India, Bachchan proved to be more widely known than even Mahatma Gandhi.

The Indian film industry employs about 2.5 million people and produces approximately 1,000 films annually.

India has the world's most prolific film industry, churning out 1,013 films in 2001, almost three a day, for more than a billion viewers at home and abroad.

Though India has the largest film industry in the world, only two commercial films have made it to Oscar nominations, Mother India and last year's super-hit Lagaan.

Seventy-five percent of the spoken dialogue and 90 percent of the songs in Indian movies are in Urdu, which imperceptibly has become the language of the "viewer's community," regardless of the assumption of the people that these are "Hindi feature films."